Category: Vegetarian/Vegan

A few moments ago, I made this dish of stir fried vegetables and rice.

It’s a simple meal that can be prepared in minutes. Occasionally, you’ll see me preparing meals that do take a while to make, however in this household it’s rare. I love good food, the majority of my daughter and my meals are home cooked.

Color (besides taste and nutrition) is something I look for in a meal. I enjoy seeing a variety of hues displayed within a dish, and so you’ll usually see some type of vegetable (or fruit) playing a starring role in the meals I prepare. Not only does it add a bit of food bling, it  also supplies us with the nutrients that our bodies needs. I’ll write more on the importance of food nutrition in a later post.

I’m a whole foods lady, meaning I eat foods as close to its natural source as possible. If you were to open our freezer you wouldn’t find too many pre-packaged meals. Wait… I take that back!  You would, but they’ve been prepared by myself. Occasionally, I’ll prepare meals in advance and freeze them for the times when I just want to heat something up for us.

Meal Preparation

I’m vegan, but these days my eight-year old daughter isn’t and so you’ll see non-veggie dishes that I’ve prepared for her. While she does eat non-veggie dishes she still prefers vegetarian or vegan cuisine.

If you’d ask me a few years ago, if I’d have let her make such a decision (this early) I would have told you no. Back in the day, I never prepared non-veggie dishes either, but now I do for loved ones. Of course, they get a nice mix of veggie cuisine, and those dishes have been devoured by them. WIth some, they were surprised that they actually liked the dish. To which my response is, it’s all in the preparation.

Bonding with family

In recent years I’ve made several non-vegan meals for family and friends. However, even though they weren’t vegan they all had a few things in common; they were nutritious, delicious, and quite simple to make. Who wants to spend time in the kitchen, when you have loved ones to hang out with?

Although my life is fairly busy, I still think it’s important to share meals together, and so you’ll find me taking my dinner time with my daughter. It’s a great chance to see what happened during her day, and because I listen it’s one way she knows that I care about what’s going on in her world. At times, we all need to be quiet and listen to what others have to say. After I pick her up from school, I usually let her help me prepare something for our evening meal. However since I have a few surprises in store for my little princess today, I decided to prepare our meal early.

The cookbook

Those who’ve followed me from my old site, VeganMomma, might remember me mentioning a cookbook I was writing. Creating a cookbook is challenging  for me. Why you ask?  It forces me to actually measure ingredients. That’s something I don’t (normally) do. I just know what amount works well with a dish. I guess that comes from cooking for a while. I made my first meal when I was four years old, thirty-seven years later I still enjoy cooking.

Anyway, while writing the book I realized there were a lot of stories to tell — some have been tied to various dishes I’ve made over the years, and so I went back and included stories. Crescent Dragonwagon’s Passionate Vegetarian and Yumana Devi’s Lord Krishna’s Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking did an excellent job of applying that technique into their cookbooks.

If you’re a fan of those types of cookbooks, you’ll find plenty of stories mixed in with many of the recipes they share. I read cookbooks like a novel, I enjoy them because the passion that is apparent with the one who’s writing them, but along the way I’ve learned additional cooking tips from some very talented chefs.

Next year, I’m taking a few cooking classes. I’m looking forward to them, and will most likely share bits of what I learn here.

 

October is Vegan Month of Food, also known as Vegan MoFo.

Since I knew I wouldn’t be able to actively participate, I didn’t add my name to the list. However throughout the month of October I’ll try to post at least one recipe per week. For those looking to cut a few calories, or simply add more plant based items into their daily lifestyle.

Please stop by the Vegan Mofo Blogroll, there’s over 700 bloggers on that list.

I was a raw vegan for a little over a year. Gradually I started adding some cooked foods into my diet, and I find that I have similar results as when I was completely raw consuming about 75% raw food. My diet is a whole food diet, which means I eat foods as close to its natural food source as possible. You won’t find me eating junk food or over processed foods. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy treats. I do, I just make sure that the treats consumed not only are delicious but are healthy too. Healthy snacks are an excellent alternative to the empty calorie junk foods that are so common in Westernized cultures.

One thing to remember, just because an item is vegetarian or vegan doesn’t automatically mean it’s healthy. You can be a very unhealthy vegetarian/vegan if you make wrong choices. There’s plenty of veggie junk food available, some people regularly consume theses products thinking they’re eating health simply because it’s plant based. Guess what? You can eat a meat based diet, and still be healthy. It’s all about the decisions you make. Educate yourself!

One of my favorite foods is a raw vegetable wrap, and so I’ve decided to include a simple recipe below. Dark leafy greens (like collards or kale) are nutrient dense powerhouses and they also make excellent raw sandwich wrappers. Raw nori is another wrapper that can be used in place of a traditional sandwich wrapper. My daughter loves nori, and requests it often. Nori can usually be found in your local health food store — or it can be purchased online.

In the article Health Benefits and nutritional properties of nori, Hiroyuki Noda said…

A sulfated galactan, similar to agar, occurs in relatively large quantities; this is a water-soluble dietary fiber that has important functional activities such as an antiblood coagulant, antihypercholesterolemia and shows antitumor activity. Minerals which occur at relatively high levels in nori include Zn, Cu, Mn and Se. It is concluded that nori is a valuable health food in human diets.

I’ve always had a lot of energy, but have found that my energy levels increased depending on the amount of raw foods I consumed.

Raw Vegetable Wrap

• 5 large leaves of green leafy lettuce, coarsely chopped
• 2 collard leaves, coarsely chopped
• 1 medium yellow onion chopped
• 3 medium carrots grated
• homemade mustard (optional)
• homemade tarter sauce (optional)

Wrapper

Large leaves of lettuce, collard, or raw nori

Directions

1. Combine ingredients in mixing bowl
2. Spread vegetables on your wrapper
3. Roll
4. Add condiments, if desired
5. Enjoy

 

References

• Springer Link: Journal of Applied Phycology

Vegan Pizza

Apparently, October is Vegan Month of Food. Did you know that?

I was clueless about this until I stumbled upon the Tofu Cottage. The owner had the banner (which I’ve added below) proudly displayed within their posts. I’ve bookmarked their site so I can refer to it this weekend.

What is VeganMofo?

According to the VeganMofo website…

VeganMoFo was originally created on the Post Punk Kitchen, as an homage to NaNoWriMo. Because we do want to write novels, but sometimes cooking gets in the way. So why not combine them!

I can support that!

Let’s see…

I’ve been Vegan since 1992. It definitely wasn’t a sacrifice to make the switch. There are numerous delicious options available for an adventurous Vegan — like myself. I love to cook, and experiment with various flavors/textures while I’m in the kitchen too. My only requirement is that the meal preparation time has to be quick, and on the table in minutes. Healthy, delicious, and nutritious, sure that’s a goal I can easily complete (with many dishes) in less than fifteen minutes.

A few years ago I had a cooking site that was focused on everything Vegan (raw and cooked) and although I most likely won’t be reviving that site, you most likely will see a few recipes making their way to this page.

Stay tuned, I’ll definitely be posting some Vegan Mofo for the month of October.

I was never fond of the traditional pasta noodles; It was simply too much flour for my taste. Imagine my happiness when I stumbled upon real veggie pasta…

Now granted, I’d made my own veggie pasta over the years. I have a manual Atlas Pasta machine. During that time, I’ve cranked out many sheets of traditional spaghetti and pasta noodles. To make it healthier, I would add real veggies to my ingredients. I enjoyed the taste, not to mention the added vegetables brightened up my pasta too.

I started researching raw foods a few years ago. I didn’t have any health related issues, and I didn’t need to lose weight. As a whole food vegan, I was very healthy. In fact, according to my health care provider I was in phenomenal health! However, I noticed when I upped my intake of raw foods even more, I felt even better, and I no longer needed to wear glasses.

Up until that time, I didn’t think feeling better than I already felt was possible. I thought I was at the top healthwise. During my quest to learn more about raw foods, and the creative ways things you could make with raw food dishes I stumbled upon pasta made from vegetables and the traditional methods I used to make pasta, was history.

Fresh from the garden

I’m truly blessed all the ingredients that went into  my above photo of my raw vegetable pasta came straight from our vegetable garden; yellow squash, yellow onions, garlic, red bell peppers, and the lemon balm and oregano that were added as a garnish (after I took this picture.)

 What kitchen appliance do I need to make the raw vegetable pasta?

Finding the right kitchen gadget to make the raw vegetable pasta wasn’t too difficult. I  bought the Saladacco,but didn’t like it at all. It only made angel hair pasta. I wanted more options. However, I did additional research and found a great raw pasta noodle maker that made the traditional pasta, angel hair pasta, and made the flat pasta too! That was perfect for raw lasagna! These days, the spiral vegetable slicer I use exclusively is the Plastic Spiral Vegetable Slicer. Thanks to this slicer, I can make vegetable pasta in minutes. The time is a lot shorter than cooking the pasta, and depending on what you marinate it with, it can mimic your “traditional pasta”.

Plastic spiral vegetable slicer

The only difference its made from vegetables. Compared to some of my other kitchen gadgets, the plastic spiral vegetable slicer is simple to use. However I do think it’s a must have tool for not only a raw food kitchen, but those who are looking for additional ways to spice up traditional pasta. If you’re trying to sneak in additional vegetables into your daily intake you might want to consider this approach.

Sharing raw foods with others

My daughter occasionally has play dates; a favorite food for her friends is spaghetti. I tend to make traditional homemade pastas when her friends come to visit. They love my homemade vegan pizzas, and vegan eggless eggrolls too but I think pasta has to be their favorite. It has everything to do with the amount of slurping they can do with the noodles. Her friends are so easy to please.

When I prepare pasta for my daughter and myself, the pasta is all raw, however, when serving it for the guest’s I’ll make traditional pasta. Their pasta is half and half; I serve 1/2 traditional pasta, and the other 1/2 veggie pasta. I combine the two and they gobble it up. I always tell their parents before I’m doing it, and they have been very happy since it’s a great way to sneak more veggies into their children’s diet. A few of their parents have purchased the spiralizer for themselves. Although they aren’t Vegan, let alone veggie, it’s a simple way they can include more vegetables into their dietary requirements, the added bonus is they all love it.

My daughter’s friends help me make the pasta. Since it’s  something they obviously enjoy I continue to include their help in our meal preparations. Naturally, their “help” can leave a lot of work for myself, but that’s ok. It’s great to get children involved in cooking, and it’s nice to see them eager about including healthy choices into their eating routine.

At times, they argue about whose turn it is to make the raw veggie pasta. I make them all take turns, but at times It’s hard for them to share. I tend to make extra. This way,  they can take some of the fresh veggie pasta home to share with their families too. The longest I’ve kept my veggie pasta was five days, it’s usually gone before that time.

Regarding the pasta I’ve sent home with my daughter’s friends, I’ve received positive reviews from their families. I really enjoy that, since I know I’m not preaching to the choir. When it comes to my food habits, we’re in the minority. We’re Vegan, they’re not and that’s ok!  I don’t try to force my view onto others, however occasionally you’ll see me entice them with some healthy alternatives to processed foods. 🙂

Realizing the importance of nutrition, those times we spend in the kitchen always have a simple nutritional lesson too. Children are like sponges, and tend to absorb whatever they receive, so it makes sense to provide them with helpful information. Those discussions conducted in our home, has prodded their parents to ask me for additional information focused on health.

As I mentioned earlier, I tend to include my daughter in a lot of my vegan food adventures. It’s another way to bond with her, and it’s a great chance to educate her about the variety of foods available and the effects food can have on our health.  I’m raising her to be nutritionally smart. As my daughter gets older, I hope she continues to make sound nutritional choices and enjoys having fun in the kitchen.

Raw food video: How to make raw pasta with Jennifer Cornbleet

If you’d like to see a how to tutorial for making raw pasta please check out the above. I really like Jennifer Cornbleet’s bubbly personality. You can learn more about her by visiting her raw food website. Eventually I’ll start adding food videos on my site. I definitely have the equipment, and I use the truly amazing Final Cut Studio for my video editing. I simply need to find the time to make videos for my personal sites.

Although the plastic spiral vegetable slicer didn’t cost much, it’s one of my favorite kitchen gadgets.

Question: What are some of your favorite kitchen gadgets?

 

Vegan Pizza

I get the urge to create vegan dishes at the most inappropriate times. Today is an excellent example, In Maryland the temperature was 95 F, with the humidity it felt as though it were around 101 F. Guess who got the bright idea to make a homemade Vegan pizza.?  Yeah that would be me, crazy I know!

However around 12:00 pm, there I was in the kitchen getting ready to preparing a Vegan Pizza. I enjoy coming up with my own recipes, so last evening you could find me thinking aout the numerous vegetables and spices I could add to my veggie pizza (more on my pizza inspiration later.)

Fresh tomatoes, basil, garlic, onion, mushrooms, rosemary, nutritional yeast, dark leafy greens, curry,  and mushrooms were all items I considered using. With the exception of the mushrooms, the remaining ingredients all found their way into the homemade pizza, along with a few more food items.

Breadmakers make it easy

To make things a little easier on myself I pulled out my Breadman Pro and created a flavorful pizza dough. I love a crust that has a bit of flavor, but not so much that it overpowers the toppings on the pizza. What did I add to the crust? A small amount of rosemary (fresh from the garden), a tiny bit of curry (mainly for color), salt, olive oil, yeast, smidge of roasted garlic, and a few other spices I cannot think of at the moment. I know, I should have written this stuff down, but I didn’t.

What I enjoy about bread machines is I simply add my ingredients into the breadmaker and walk away until the cycle is complete. I’ve had this particular breadmaker for over four years. Although it doesn’t take the place of traditionally made pizzas & breads (at least not for myself) it speeds the process up tremendously and if you don’t care about traditionally made breads or pizza dough but love that down home taste, a bread machine might be a good choice.



Vegan Pizza: Hmm. It looks like dairy cheese, but it isn’t.

I’m not a big fan of store bought “vegan cheese.” Checking out the ingredients on a few of the Vegan cheese I’ve seen, has turned me off, since the ingredients weren’t healthy. I know I can eat good food that is delicious and is nutritious for me too. Why skimp on nutrition just to have a delicious meal? Sorry, I don’t think so. I’m still working on tweaking my cheesy version. Cheese isn’t something I miss when I made the switch to vegetarianism in 1992. I rarely make this “cheesy sauce.”. However, I’m happy with the results. It’s flavorful and a much healthier option then some of the products I’ve seen advertised.

One of the most enjoyable parts of making your own pizza is kneading the dough. At least, that is one of my favorite parts. My seven-year old daughter enjoys it too. I eagerly showed her the fine art of kneading pizza dough. She loved it. Once the pizza crusts were ready, she helped me add the numerous vegetable toppings. The only thing I didn’t make was the sauce, I selected a really nice pasta sauce, and added tomatoes freshly picked from our garden. I added a few additional spices. The sauce was amazing.

Pizza Inspiration

Perhaps  I should blame this on Suituapui? 😉  He’s the amazing man behind the fabulous foodie blog, Still crazy after all these years. Suituapui is an amazing storyteller, so prepare to be entertained while you read his foodie posts. No, Suituapui isn’t vegan, but I’ve received many ideas simply by reading and checking out the photos he shares with his readers.

In yesterday’s post, Suituapui, posted about a pizza restaurant his daughter and a few of her friends had visited, and gazing at the pizza photos he included had me craving for a good homemade Veggie Pizza. The only problem was it was late in the evening when I read his post, and I wasn’t about to make pizza, and so I mentally added that to my “To Do” list for today. On second thought, why would I blame him? My daughter and I had a blast making the Vegan pizza, and we enjoyed eating a few slices too. The best part is, there are leftovers. Suituapui, thanks for the inspiration!

If you enjoy food, and a good story definitely check out Suituapui’s virtual home. I’m always fascinated by different cultures and enjoy reading the foods they eat and getting a glimpse at traditions too. Suituapui gives me a taste of both at his virtual home. Even though his site is fairly popular he goes out of his way to make his visitors feel welcome, so stop on by when you have the chance and don’t forget to subscribe to his RSS feed.

 

 

Black Bean burger w/vegetable fried rice

As a child, Sunday’s was a day reserved to elaborate meals. For breakfast we could expect to see foods like sausage, bacon, eggs, grits, biscuits, and gravy. My mom usually supplied some type of fresh fruit, and vegetables too. She made everything from scratch, and so our breakfast meals, just like lunches, and dinners were an elaborate affair.

Naturally, my mother prepared Sunday breakfast early, so there’d was plenty of time for all of us to get ready for church. Sunday dinner was usually already in the oven; The aroma of baked turkey, ham, or chicken could be smelled throughout the house along with some type of vegetable dish (usually greens or carrots.) Although our family always ate meals together, Sundays were special since it was our parents day to relax. My brother and I looked forward to Sunday, since it meant we had extra time with our parents.

A lot has changed since my childhood days…



Savory Lentil Soup

I became Vegetarian in 1992, and switched to a Vegan lifestyle shortly afterwards. I’m what you’d consider a whole food Vegan, which means I eat as close to the natural food source as possible. You won’t find too many processed food items in our household. They simply don’t have the flavor and wholesome goodness of the abundance of fresh vegetables and fruit that are available.

 

Oven roasted vegetables

Sundays are still a special day in our home. My seven year old daughter loves to cook, and I let her help me prepare a few of our meals. Even though I’m not making the traditional meals from childhood Sundays are still special for myself and my daughter, since I  let her share in the cooking experience. She also gets to choose some of her favorite foods. Makes sense, since she’s helping prepare them, right? It’s a great time for us to chat about food, nutrition, and whatever else crosses her mind.

The majority of my meals aren’t elaborate (even though I do love cooking) but they are still nutritious, simple, and delicious, and I prepare our meals and have them on the table withing twenty minutes. I love color, so you’ll see me picking a lot of bright and colorful vegetables and fruits in the meals I prepare.

We’re fortunate to have a garden bursting with produce, and so we’re always have a steady supply of fresh vegetables and fruits. Currently we’re getting a lot of eggplants, green onions, tomatoes, collards, kale, cucumbers, squash, blackberries, watermelon, cantaloupe, and figs. It won’t be too long before it’s time to pick the corn, sunflower seeds, grapes, and a few other vegetables that I cannot think of at the moment.

Today my daughter and I are taking it easy. Our meals were prepared yesterday, and so after arriving home from church we needed only to heat our meal. How’s that for convenience?  What was on our vegan menu? Black Bean burgers, vegetable fried rice, savory lentil soup, oven roasted vegetables, with green smoothies and freshly prepared fruit pudding were the choices available. Naturally, we didn’t eat all of that, but the option was there.

Question: How was your day? However, you spent your Sunday, I’m hoping you and your family is have a sparkling day!